Toys are often created to have play value by simulating non-toy or real items at an expense perceived as reasonable for a toy product. Nevertheless, creating such toys is both difficult and expensive, and many marketed toys are not commercially successful. Many toy concepts do not even reach commercialization. The toy industry develops new toys on a yearly basis and refreshes existing toys to continue interest in the toys for different age groups or for a new group of children reaching a certain age segment. As mentioned, many times new or refreshed toys do not become marketing successes or they never reach the marketplace. However, efforts continue to be made because commercially successful toys are profitable.
Hasbro has created a line of toys where rapid-fire launchers discharge or “shoot” soft, spongy, cellular darts at targets selected by child operators or users of the launchers. The soft, spongy, cellular material used for the darts has been and continues to be used for many products and is generally known by consumers under Hasbro's trademark NERF.
Magazine apparatus have been designed in the past as shown by various earlier United States patents. These may be best reviewed by dividing the patents into two categories, cartridge magazines to be used with real guns, and magazines for toys products or paint ball launchers. In the category of cartridge magazines for real guns, U.S. Pat. No. 1,290,852 for an “Automatic Gas Operated Firearm” issued to Sturgeon in 1919, purports to disclose a sprocket wheel and a spiral spring for feeding cartridges from a continuous belt. U.S. Pat. No. 2,777,235 to Hopkins issued in 1957, entitled “Firearm Magazine With Negator Coil Springs” purports to illustrate two coiled ribbon springs 21, 22 for biasing a follower 28 upwardly to push against cartridges 34, 36 causing them to exit through a port 20. U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,954 for a “Extended Capacity Cartridge Magazine Structure” issued to Hausmann in 1978, purports to illustrate the use of a negator spring 25, FIGS. 1-6, attached to a follower 20 that biases cartridges 15 to a dispenser opening 12 in a “banana” shaped magazine. In FIG. 14, there is illustrated two negator springs 99, 107, also called “spirally wound springs,” connected, respectively, to two followers 97, 105. The spring 99 biases cartridges 100 in the drum section of the magazine toward the straight section of the magazine, and a spring 107 biases cartridges 200 in the straight section of the magazine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,508 to Sullivan and Waterfield issued in 1983 for a “Drum Magazine For A Gun” purports to illustrate a drum magazine with three sprockets 42, 43, 44, FIG. 6, biased by a “sheet metal clock-type torsion spring 46,” FIGS. 3A, 4 and 5A, to bias cartridges C in a magazine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,626 issued in 1985 to Bartoiles for a “Primer Cartridge Magazine For A Wedge-Type Breech Block” purports to disclose use of a tension band to indicate a count of cartridges stored in a cartridge magazine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,879,828 issued for a “Constant Force Spring For Cartridge Magazines” in 1989 to Dieringer et al., purports to disclose a constant force spring and a follower for lifting a stack of cartridges to a gun where the spring includes an anti-curl feature. U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,251 issued in 1991 to Lilley for an “Airgun Magazine” purports to disclose a circular pellet carrier with a coil spring that biases the pellet carrier for loading the pellets into a gun.
In the category of magazines for toy guns and paint projectile launchers, U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,252 issued in 2000 to Stevens for a “Projectile Feed System” purports to disclose an apparatus for feeding paint balls to a paint ball gun. Paint balls are received in pockets around the a periphery of a carrier, and rotation of the carrier moves the paint balls into contact with a guide assembly for directing the paint balls to the gun. U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,837 issued in 2002 to Johnson et al., for a “Toy Gun With Magazine” purports to disclose a magazine with an internal indexing wheel having an annular array of divider walls, where the magazine is operated pneumatically to position a projectile and then uses a coiled spring to return the magazine to an original position.
A U.S. Publication No. 2006/0180134 published in 2006 and listing Illuzzi as inventor for a “Combination Solid Projectile And Paintball Gun, And Solid Projectile Adapter For Paintball Gun” purports to disclose a number of different shaped magazines and different shaped projectiles for feeding a gun by compressed gas. U.S. Pat. No. 7,222,619 for a “Device For Storing Projectile Balls And Feeding Them Into The Projectile Chamber Of A Hand Gun” issued in 2007 to Andresen, purports to disclose a paint ball feeding device with a feeder having feeder chambers and being driven by an electric motor with a slip clutch. An earlier patent listing the same inventor, Andresen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,953, purports to disclose a structure similar to the first mentioned Andresen patent. A slightly later patent again listing the same inventor, Andresen, U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,456, entitled “Device For Feeding Balls Into The Ball Chamber Of A Handgun,” purports to disclose the same structure as shown in his earlier U.S. Pat. No. 7,222,619. U.S. Pat. No. 7,357,130 for a “Spring-Assisted Paintball Loader” issued in 2008 to Broersma purports to disclose a paintball loader having a motor driven spinning spool and a spiral spring to avoid “dry firing” when the spool is not being driven.
These disclosures, while interesting, do not disclose a toy dart magazine that is useful and cost effective for a toy, especially for a toy operating with soft darts.